Áccording to the Steve Jobs' bio Apple had plans to build and sell a television

In the recently published bio of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson described the ambitious future plans for an Apple-branded television. For several years now, Apple has been producing the Apple TV entertainment device. Considering their focus on consumer products, it’s a good strategic move but the real question is should they actually build and sell a television.

Apple is famous for reinventing the wheel and making a killing doing it. The plan to use the Siri technology from the iPhone 4S
is a great decision. It’s still new, and will have some growing pains.
But the ability to speak in plain English to your video entertainment
device is a big step. Before VCRs went extinct, there were plenty of
people that couldn’t get the display to stop flashing 12:00. Reducing
the complexity of using an entertainment system is a major step forward.

The displays that Apple uses in its products are excellent. The Apple Cinema displays
are stunning. But they’re also quite expensive. You can buy a similar
monitor from a competing manufacturer for less than half the price.
Unless Apple provides some amazing incentive in terms of features and
service, it’s possible that an overpriced TV product from them will not
sell very well–especially not in an over-stressed economy.